Cast a Shadow
by Taliax
Summary: Just because he was a heart of pure darkness didn't mean he wanted to be stuck in the Realm of Darkness forever. Just because she was the only other one there didn't make them friends. And just because they were going to spending a whole, whole lot of quality time together didn't mean she could change him. Rated T for violence and emotional disturbances. For Aqua/Vanitas Day 2014.
1. Paradise or Prison

**A/N: So this has been in planning for what, a year now? *sweatdrop* If one of my plot bunnies lasts this long, though, I'm pretty sure it's worth writing. It's been fun so far, anyway. I have quite a few chapters of this drafted already, but I'm going to try and finish up some of my multichapters that are closer to being complete before I devote too much effort to this. Of course, if this is my lowest priority, chances are I'll get all sorts of inspiration for it. ^^; Basically don't count on me being consistent, but any of you who read my fanfics before this already know that. **

**Happy Aqua/Vanitas Day, guys!**

**XXX**

There was nothing. For a few horrifying, breathless moments, there was nothing. No X-Blade – _shattered – _no fighting – _so still – _no Ventus – _only half again – _no Aqua – _dead…?_

_I…_

And then there was less nothing. The feeling of tight, stifling clothing stretching across his skin. _That stupid suit. Can't even get rid of it by dying… _But if he could feel that, he couldn't be dead, could he? At least, not yet.

_I… don't…_

Sinking. His stomach dropped; the darkness pressed in on his eyes and made it impossible to tell how far he was falling, but a cold breeze whipped upwards into his face, through his hair – _hey, I have hair – _so he must've been falling fast.

He didn't particularly care where he was falling. _I should care, right? Why don't I care?_

_Ven's heart attached to the light, _he remembered. _Maybe I'm just becoming one with the darkness._

His sightless eyes widened as he realized he _did _care. Darkness was under his control, not vice versa. It wouldn't get his heart.

The vertical wind sped up – he was falling faster, faster, and did he just see something? Blue. Glowing spots of blue, scattered across the ground above him, fluorescent holes of light. And yellow microscopic specks, too, like stars. _What?_

Before he could determine the source of any of the lights, he crashed to the earth like a rogue meteor.

XXX

He wasn't sure how long it took him to wake up. Time felt asleep itself. However long he was unconscious, though, it wasn't long enough to relieve the pain of a headfirst impact of enough force to make a crater in the rocky ground.

The base of his helmet, the metal part cupping his chin and jaw, was still present on his head, but for some reason the glass that would've actually protected him wasn't. With a mental command, it spread over his hair and face, tinting his vision even darker than this dark place already was. If only he'd done that _before _sustaining a concussion…

_Why should I get up? _He wondered. It wasn't long before a convincing enough reason came to him: he was bored. Sleeping was boring. If he was just going to sleep and wallow in pain in this hole, he might as well be dead.

So he got up, climbed out of the crater, rubbed his throbbing but somehow not-crushed head – well, helmet – and looked around.

Those yellow specks were a lot bigger up close. _Really _close, almost-touching-his-face close. And even to a heart of pure darkness, the horde of them packed around him was incredibly creepy.

Heartless eyes. He – _Ventus_ – no, the two of them when they were whole – had seen them before, but that was so long ago. Master Xehanort had made the Heartless attack him, and the panic and fear had split their weak heart. He backed away, but another Heartless, a Neoshadow just like that fateful day, blocked his path.

"Back off," he snarled, summoning Void Gear and taking up a battle stance, but the Heartless barely reacted. Its antennae twitched curiously, as if asking what he was doing. But none attacked, not even one.

"What are you staring at?" He snapped. The Heartless made unintelligible noises, sounding like the tide washing over a rocky beach, and then they slowly dispersed, losing interest in him.

_Why aren't they trying to kill me? _They were darkness, so – wait, without Ventus, he was only darkness, too. To them, he might as well be another Heartless.

Well, that would be a huge advantage if he was stuck in the source of all Heartless, which was the only place this could possibly be: the Realm of Darkness.

He suddenly let out a maniacal cackle. "The Realm of Darkness!" Fate was stupid if it thought this was a punishment. He was _born _for a place like this. No more light slicing at his heart like in all those bright worlds.

"Hah, who needs a X-Blade when I've got this whole Realm?" This was what the X-Blade War would've done anyway, right? Plunged the whole World into darkness? Now he had that all to himself – he didn't even have to share with that idiot Xehanort.

He grinned demonically. "This is going to be _perfect."_

XXX

…Or maybe not. Sure, he could do whatever he wanted here, but he couldn't get any dark corridors to open to the Realm of Light, the Heartless were idiots not even worthy of a sparring match, and the landscape was dull for as far as he'd explored.

"This sucks," he decided. It was so _boring. _He'd resorted to summoning a few Unversed for company, but they ticked him off so he killed them, and then his heart writhed in pain. So he preferred not to do that.

It wasn't like the Heartless were entertaining, either. With no hearts to steal, they'd occasionally pick fights with each other, and the winner would "eat" (more like absorb, really) the loser and gain its stolen hearts. None of them dared to attack him, though, since he was the darkest of the dark. Even if he attacked them first, their retaliation only lasted for a few minutes before they fled to save their worthless half-existences.

So the most interesting option was exploring. He never slept in the same place twice; his legs carried him for several "days" until he took refuge in caves or craters or just slept under the purple-black sky. He wasn't sure how much longer he would've lasted without going insane if it weren't for the sudden Heartless migration one dawnless morning.

He yawned and stretched up, popping his spine. Sleeping on solid rock was going to be the death of him someday. Not that he'd ever had a comfortable bed, or anything remotely comfortable for that matter.

Hopping down from the stone platform that had functioned as a makeshift bed, he landed on a Neoshadow's foot. It shoved him aside in its haste to get to… wherever it was going. He shot off a Fire at it, only to have a Darkball crash into his face, knock him to the ground, and fly after the burning Neoshadow.

Neoshadow_s_, actually. And Shadows, and Defenders, and every other Heartless he knew as well as a ton he didn't. They swarmed over him without care until he roared up, keyblade slicing through semi-tangible bodies that came too close. The stampede got the hint and formed a bubble around him, like he was a rock jutting from the center of a dark stream.

"What is going _on?" _He asked, not that anybody would answer.

And then he smelled it: a rich, pure, clean scent, like freshly-washed cotton dipped in nectar hanging from a cherry blossom tree. He didn't know how he recognized those scents, considering he'd never smelled any of them before. At least, not in his memory. But he could feel the tugging in the pit of his heart that could only mean one thing – light.

_A light in the heart of the Realm of Darkness?_

He couldn't have resisted it if he tried; the Heartless were sweeping him along, and the scent was strong, and his primal instincts drove him like a moth to flame, like any common Heartless. Plus, it was the most interesting thing that had happened in his time here. Probably the most interesting thing that ever had or ever would happen again, too.

_How long has it been since I felt…? It was when _Ventus… _No, I don't miss that… So why am I…? Not like there's anything else to do…_

Using catlike agility and tracking skills only gifted to a heart of pure darkness, he wove his way through the Heartless pack. Deformed pillars and jagged rocks served as springboards that allowed him to practically fly over their heads.

The scent must've been even stronger than he thought, because after what he guessed was hours he still hadn't reached it. He'd left the majority of the Heartless in his dust, but he was so exhausted that he had to sleep, and by the time he woke again they had caught back up.

Two more "days" passed. The scent grew overpowering; his eyes watered, dizziness slowed his progress, but he kept tracking it. The Heartless, when he saw them, grew even more agitated. What could the light be? What was it doing here?

Curiosity won out against discomfort, so he kept going.

He was close now; he could feel it. The massive cluster of Heartless was a big clue, too. So were the faint but determined battle cries… _familiar _battle cries…

He stood at the edge of a steep cliff that protruded into the inky sky. The tip of it was so narrow that he tested his weight on it first to make sure it wouldn't crumble into the chasm below, but it stayed firm, so he stepped forward and looked unflinchingly towards the ground.

The cliff wasn't so tall, at least not as tall as he thought, and that wasn't a cavern – the mass of dark creatures, more than he had ever seen in one place, even in the Realm of Darkness, created the illusion of depth.

The pure scent of light wafted from the center of the dark mass, blown upward by a fresh breeze. He took a deep breath, the immediately coughed it out. It scoured the inside of his throat like acid, but he still had to get closer.

He'd stared firing a barrage of Dark Blizzaga on the Heartless below before he realized what he was doing. It wasn't very effective; while it was a momentary distraction, the Heartless' lust drove them to fight to devour the light without any sense of self-preservation. He tried mentally commanding them, the way he did with his Unversed, but their dark clouds of "emotion" blocked him out. By now he was pretty fed up with the Heartless in general. What right did they have to the light? _He _was the strongest darkness; _he _deserved to eliminate the foreign light.

Without a second thought for the force of gravity, he jumped from the cliff. The fall lasted a fraction of a second; the impact caused him no pain. The vicious reaction of the Heartless mob, however, did. Wyverns dive-bombed him; Darkballs snapped at his arms; Neoshadows tried to drag him into their dark pools. With a roar he summoned his keyblade and slashed through them with a deadly combo. A Wyvern counterattacked by scooping him up in its talons, flying up, and dangling him over the horde at a much greater height than the cliff.

"Let _go _of me you overgrown- uh, actually don't let go. Or I'll bash your skull in."

Apparently he still had some power over the Heartless, because it didn't drop him. Instead it gave a shrill _skreee _and shifted him to its other foot.

From this angle, he managed a glimpse at the source of the light – only a glimpse, but it was enough.

_I _knew _I recognized that voice – wait, what is _she _doing here?!_

He barely had time to wonder before the Wyvern plunged into a steep spiral dive, straight towards the girl he recognized.

"Hold on stop you idiot _stop!" _He yelled at the Wyvern in vain. They were a split second away from her – and the very solid ground –

Her keyblade dissolved the Wyvern just before it headbutted her, but that didn't stop his momentum. He managed to tuck his head and roll across the craggy ground without breaking any bones. That didn't mean he wouldn't feel bruised and broken later, but right now adrenaline was pumping through his veins so frenetically that he barely stopped to catch his breath.

"Hey, losers," he called over the roars, grunts, and hisses of the Heartless. He didn't spare himself a glance at the shocked, apparently speechless girl beside him, though her horribly pure smell was overpowering him in a way it never did in the Realm of Light. Couldn't get distracted now; the Heartless would jump on any scent of weakness.

He summoned a ball of Dark Firaga and held it high as a warning. _This better work, or—_Well, he didn't have time to think about it.

"She's _mine," _he declared to the Heartless. They quieted slightly at his voice. "You hear me? _Mine. _So if you want your worthless nonexistences ripped to shreds, just _try _to take her from me."

Sure, they'd paused for a moment, but now the Heartless didn't seem impressed by his threat. Several Neoshadows slashed at the girl in unison, but she could only block so many claws. The last slash landed her flat on the ground with a broken cry.

"I _said, _she's _mine!" _He snarled, destroying the Neoshadow and other nearby Heartless with his Dark Firaga. The girl writhed from its toxic heat. "But if that's how you want to play…"

He finally allowed himself a clear look at the girl. Blue hair was the most striking attribute at first; he knew her blue eyes would be too, if they weren't closed. Dark scars, bruises, and blisters marred her exposed skin – which she had an overly large amount of, especially compared with himself. Her right sleeve was in tatters, one of her pink chest-straps hung loosely where it had snapped, and that odd skirt-like thing she usually wore tied around her waist was missing.

In summary, she was broken. He could finish her off then and there. Finally have vengeance on the girl who had killed him.

But even as he pressed his keyblade to her throat, a voice in his head whispered, _Then what?_

The girl coughed up blood. Her eyes opened narrowly, but where he expected to see bright blue, full of loathing for the abomination she had killed, there was only cold, dead grey.

"Kill me," she muttered. Her voice was like gravel. "At least…" she coughed, "then this nightmare will end…"

The Heartless wouldn't wait forever for him to make a decision. So he made one.

He summoned an orb of pure darkness and shoved it down her throat.

XXX

"You're heavier than you look," he said as soon as she regained consciousness. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, but he could tell from the shift in her breathing.

When she coughed, dark violet smoke, the same color as the fire he was stoking, drifted out. "What did you _do _to me, you-" He didn't find out how she planned to insult him this time, because another coughing fit wracked her body, and she curled back into the fetal position.

"You mean besides saving your life?" He smirked under his mask. "I used a spell to cover up your light, single-handedly fought off the remaining Heartless, and carried you all the way here."

He didn't mention that there were less than fifty Heartless remaining once they thought her heart was gone, and the cave he'd carried her to was only a few yards away. But still, the fact that he'd _saved her life _should've made her a little less critical.

She didn't seem to hear. He was starting to wonder if she'd fallen sleep again until she gasped out, "Why?"

He shrugged. "I was bored."

It was probably – no, definitely – the most honest thing he'd ever said to her, but she opened her eyes just enough to scowl at him. "Why… should I believe you… Vanitas?" She practically hissed his name. It was almost as amusing as it was irritating.

"I don't give two Shadows if you believe me or not. But if I didn't want you alive, you'd already be dead."

She coughed up more dark purple smoke. "What do you… want from me?"

The violet fire reflected eerily off of Vanitas's mask. "I'm sure I'll come up with something."

Unfortunately, she fell asleep before she could grace him with a heated retort. It was too bad; that half-conversation was the most entertaining thing that had happened since he'd gotten stuck here.

He lay down and tucked his hands behind his helmeted head.

"Goodnight, Aqua."

**A/N: If anyone's wondering why Aqua isn't too surprised to see Vanitas, she's basically accepted the fact that every horrible thing that can possibly happen will.**


	2. Who Needs to Change

Vanitas woke to the sound of Aqua heaving up the rest of the light-concealing smoke.

"How long is this-" she coughed up another opaque lungful, "going to last?"

"Not long enough," Vanitas replied. He could already smell her light resurfacing, which meant every Heartless within a hundred miles could too. In fact, a few smaller, stupider ones were creeping through the entrance of the cave already. Vanitas shot off a few volleys of Blizzaga until the entrance was frozen shut.

Even though Aqua still looked like she was at the brink of death – which she practically was – she found enough strength to summon her keyblade and point it at him. Well, not _her _keyblade – didn't that blade belong to Eraqus?

"If you dare shove that black magic down my throat again, I swear I'll kill you."

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. If he didn't know any better, he'd think he'd rubbed off on her. The Realm of Darkness must've been even harder on her mind than he'd thought, or else his light-concealing magic had been too effective. He didn't think it was strong enough to _destroy _any of her light.

"That's not my only trick," he said, standing up. She flinched, backing up farther into the cave like a cornered animal. "Stop it, it's for your own good."

"Yeah, right," she said sarcastically. Her guard didn't falter.

Vanitas rolled his eyes and tossed her a hi-potion, which her reflexes were just sharp enough for her to catch. "Look, if you're spewing light everywhere you'll just get both of us killed. Drink that and man up; this won't hurt. Much."

He smirked. Just because he wanted her alive didn't mean he couldn't have some fun.

Aqua glared with all her strength, but eventually she caved and drank the hi-potion (why she hadn't used Cure earlier was a mystery to him). While she was momentarily distracted, Vanitas cast a cloud of black fog over her, but unlike the darkness from before, this fog seemed to dissipate as soon as it touched her chalky skin. She gasped and dropped the empty potion bottle.

"Tch. You're fine." Vanitas kicked the bottle aside. "That was just a weaker cloaking spell. Hopefully it'll be good enough."

"Why do you care?" Aqua asked, scratching her arms, which were breaking out in goosebumps.

"I told you already, I'm bored. If you actually _paid attention, _you'd realize I'm just as stuck here as you are."

"But you're darkness. You belong here."

He shook his head. "I don't belong here. I don't belong-" _anywhere. _It had been so long – his whole life, practically – since he talked to anyone, it almost came out. "-shut up," he muttered. "How did _you _get here, anyway?"

Her gaze traveled upwards, but the cave's low ceiling blocked the sky she must have hoped to see. Not that outside was anything but darkness.

"I saved Terra," she said with a light smile. It was amazing how at the mention of her friend's name all her anger, pain, and fatigue faded away, and for the first time since he had found her in the Realm of Darkness, the light returned to her eyes. It was enough to make Vanitas want to find Terra, wherever he was, and strangle him. "He was falling into the darkness, but I sent him back to the light."

"Wait a sec," Vanitas paced around Aqua, "you had a chance to let that loser rot in the Realm of Darkness, and instead you chose to get _yourself _stuck down here trying to save him?"

"He would have done the same for me," Aqua said firmly, somehow managing to glare straight into his eyes even through his mask. "He was a true friend."

"You and Ventus, always going on about your friends," Vanitas muttered. _"At least I have some!" – _that's what Ventus had said before their final battle. What was he saying, Vanitas needed friends? _Please. _Look where that got the three of them – Ventus's heart shattered, Aqua stranded in the Realm of Darkness, and Terra… well, apparently Terra got the good end of the friendship deal, if Aqua saved him. "Wonder what happened to the old man, if Terra's not up to his ears in darkness…"

"What?" Aqua asked.

"Xehanort. The creep planned on possessing your friend's body, but I was too busy fighting you and Ventus to find out if that worked out or not."

Aqua's brow furrowed. "It did but… wait, 'creep'? Who are you to talk?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes. "I never possessed Ventus, if that's what you're getting at. We were originally two halves of a whole; my personality just happens to be stronger. Always was." He chuckled darkly. "If you had met your precious _Ventus _before Xehanort split us in two, you would've jumped down here before even thinking about being his friend."

"You're wrong!" Aqua yelled, summoning her keyblade and standing unsteadily. Vanitas might've thought twice about playing mind games with her if he knew just how quickly she would regain her strength. Probably shouldn't have given her that hi-potion. "I didn't give up on Terra even though there was darkness in him, and I'd never give up on Ven!"

"Then what about me, Aqua?" He crossed his arms. "Do I have too much darkness to be saved?"

He wasn't sure where it came from. For a moment he wasn't sure of what he'd said at all; he just stared through the protective layer of his mask and tried to make out the emotions beneath Aqua's troubled expression.

"…Forget it," he finally said, turning towards the cave's frozen entrance, where the Heartless had stopped ramming themselves against the ice, now that Aqua's light was hidden.

He didn't need 'saving.' He was darkness, and that was it. He had no business being so close to someone so full of light; it was messing with his head. Why did he think he could keep her? They'd just end up killing each other – again – and it wasn't like he needed her, surely _something_ else would happen to keep him from dying of boredom…

"No," Aqua said quietly, breaking his thoughts.

"No _what?" _He spat without looking at her.

"You're not too far gone. No one can stray so far from the light that there's no way to go back."

Vanitas snorted. "You're assuming something you shouldn't."

"And what would that be?" She asked it like a challenge.

"That I've ever seen the light in the first place."

Vanitas thought he had stumped her, but eventually she replied, "That doesn't mean you can't find it for the first time. It would not be easy, but that doesn't mean it can't be done."

…This whole conversation was stupid. He was stupid for bringing it up in the first place. He didn't _want _light. All light did, especially in a place like this, was get you killed.

"And now you're assuming that I'd even want to."

"…Well, you did save my life."

She was going to try and use that insignificant little fact as proof he had goodness in him? As Braig would've said, as if.

"Yeah, and I tried to kill you plenty of times before that. So what?" He leaned against the wall, eyeing her out of the corner of his helmet. At some point in their conversation she had sat down and began to wash her face with some water she had filled the empty hi-potion bottle with.

She shrugged. "Maybe I'd just like to believe that the only other person trapped here with me isn't completely evil."

"Maybe you're too optimistic for your own good," Vanitas muttered.

"Probably," she admitted. Maybe she hadn't gone completely insane, then.

"Come on. Time to go."

"Go where?" She asked, combing her hair with her fingers. "I've been walking forever, and there's nothing out there."

"I don't…" Wait. He _did _know. "This place doesn't go on forever. I can sense which parts of the Realm of Darkness are lighter – the edges. Maybe we could find a way out of here."

"Really?" Her eyes lit up again. Little did she know this was only a half-truth – he could sense concentrations of darkness, but he had no sure way of knowing if by following the lighter areas they could make it out of here. But even if they couldn't, it was a way of making sure Aqua stayed with him even after she came to her senses and realized he would always be a heart of pure darkness.

"Sure. I don't have a reason to stay down here." He shrugged.

"Wait," she said dubiously. "When we get out of here, what's stopping you from trying to start the Keyblade War again?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes, not that she could see. "One, the X-Blade's destroyed; two, Xehanort's apparently gone, thank Kingdom Hearts; and three, I'm not a complete idiot." Like he was going to go back and do the same thing he'd _died _trying to do once already? No way.

"If you're so glad to be rid of Xehanort, why did you help him in the first place?"

Vanitas shrugged. "What else was I going to? Now come on, I'm bored and you want to get out of here."

Aqua didn't argue even though he was rude about it. She pocketed the empty potion bottle, not one to litter even in a place where no one was around to care. When he left the cave, she stayed a good two yards behind him, so there was no misconception that she actually trusted him. She said he _could _change. Not that he would.

No, he was perfectly suited for survival here in the Realm of Darkness. If anyone needed to change, it was Aqua.


	3. In Every Heart

**A/N: Wow, I'm kind of surprised how much positive feedback I've gotten on this when barely anything's happened so far. ^^; Thank you!**

Vanitas quickly found that Aqua was disappointing when she wasn't fighting or arguing or rambling about her stupid friends. Her expression stayed closed and brooding whenever he checked over his shoulder to make sure she was still there, and she hadn't spoken a word since they started walking. Of course, neither had he. Was she as bored as he was?

At least the Heartless they ran across broke up the monotony. Not because the dark creatures were particularly interesting, but because he got to watch Aqua's twirly, girly fighting style without worrying about blocking her attacks.

"Something funny?" She asked – finally, something to break the silence – when she caught him snorting after she came out of her Spellweaver command style.

"Huh-? The Heartless are just pathetic, that's all," he covered quickly, crushing an HP orb in his hand. Her twirliness may be amusing, but he knew from experience how deadly it could be.

"These aren't as bad as the ones I had to face earlier." She wandered across the width of the gorge they were travelling through, absorbing the rest of the HP orbs. She needed them more than he did.

"'Cause you're not spewing light everywhere anymore. You're not attracting the worst ones."

Aqua glared at him, but her gaze wavered. "This place isn't right." She shook her head. "Any place where darkness is more of a protection than light is wrong." Her voice had lost a little of its gravely-ness from the potion earlier, but even the air in this place seemed to make her sick, probably stinging her throat the same way the scent of her light burned his.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. "Again with the whole 'Light is Perfect' thing. I don't know how you can still believe in that after all this."

"All what?" Aqua raised an eyebrow, and Vanitas snorted.

"_Everything. _Do you need a list?" She didn't reply, so apparently she did. "You getting stuck here in the first place, Ventus ending up in a coma…" His eyes were drawn to her keyblade, which she still gripped protectively. "Your Master was the most Light-happy of them all, wasn't he? And you know what happened to him."

She squeezed the handle of Eraqus's keyblade tighter, staring at it intently, and then replied, "That was Xehanort's doing. All of this was, in one way or another. What happened to us, what happened to you, all of it. None of this would have happened if it wasn't for darkness."

Vanitas shook his head. "Don't think everything about darkness is stupid just because the old geezer was. I wouldn't be able to find our way out of here if it wasn't for the power of darkness."

"That's not the point," Aqua said, continuing down the path that narrowed the farther they walked. "If it wasn't for the darkness, we wouldn't _need _to find a way out."

Vanitas shrugged. "Call me biased, but if it weren't for darkness, I wouldn't exist."

"Is that supposed to make me accept it?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"Ouch, Aqua. I thought people with light in their hearts would be a little nicer than that," he replied, exaggerating his offense. _Nice to be reminded where I stand… Whatever. _"Of course, even your heart isn't completely full of light," he retorted sharply.

"It's better than yours," she snapped.

"Better than me, Aqua? I thought light didn't boast," Vanitas taunted, enjoying the frustration on her face. Finally, a decent reaction. "What would your Master say?"

"You know _nothing _of my Master," she growled, baring his keyblade in a battle stance. Was she actually planning on fighting him now, in his home court, when she was still weak and dependent on him?

"I know he hated anything with a fraction of darkness. So seeing you here, surrounded by it, talking with it…" Vanitas laughed. "He'd have a heart attack. If he was still alive, that is. But he's not. And that's Terra's fault as much as Xehanort's; you know that, right?"

"Shut up!" Tendrils of magic swirled around Aqua's keyblade and up her arm. "You have no right to insult my friends! Terra fought his darkness!"

Vanitas raised his eyebrows in genuine surprise, not that she could see. "And are you fighting yours, Aqua?"

She gasped in a mixture of shock and confusion, then looked at the weapon in her hands. Her confusion slowly faded to disbelief at the dark magic swirling around her late Master's once light-filled keyblade.

"What…?" She tried to shake it off, but it only spread farther up her arm. "No! I don't know what kind of trick this is—"

"Because it's not a trick, Aqua. It's _you." _He was almost as shocked as she was. He knew she had natural talent at magic, but did that include dark magic that she'd (assumedly) never used before?

"No… _NO_!" She cast Aeroga over herself to blow away the dark magic, which finally vanished. "I can't… I _won't_…"

"Sheesh, Aqua, just give up already," Vanitas said, leaning against a faintly glowing rock outcropping to the side of the path. "Darkness is in everyone, even in the Realm of Light. What makes you think you can escape it here?"

Her shoulders slumped as she hugged herself tightly, shivering. "I don't know." Her voice came out as a hoarse growl. "I don't know… But I have to get out of here. I have to get out…"

Vanitas didn't think she had the energy to run, but apparently she did. She fled into a maze of organic-looking rock pillars before he remembered that he should probably chase her down, unless he wanted to be alone and bored again.

Still, something was wrong. He'd brought out the worst in her, just as he'd intended. He'd won his little game, proved that even the great Master Aqua could be broken.

"So why isn't this any fun…?

XXX

It was even more of a maze on the inside than he'd thought. Some of the pillars were more like ridges, winding odd patters and dead-ending in several places.

"She couldn't have gotten that far…"

Maybe not, but there were too many directions to check, and his cloaking spell had done its job too well. Either that, or she had lost more light… "Why should I care if she loses all her light? It happened to me, and I turned out fine," he told himself, picking another path at random. Spiked pillars jutted from the ground in the middle of this one, forcing him to carefully weave his way down the path.

"She couldn't have come this way," he decided. "She's not thinking straight enough to-"

Sobbing. Faint, but definitely coming from the end of this path. Vanitas slashed through the remaining narrower spikes between him and Aqua, who was curled up in a ball under a ledge that protruded from a dead-end wall.

Now that he found her, he had no idea what to do. He'd never heard anyone cry before, unless he counted himself, and that had been a long, long time ago. But this was _Aqua._

"Shut up," he ordered, arms crossed over his chest. She was too good for crying. She ignored him. "I said _shut up!"_

She finally looked up. Her other sleeve was missing, probably caught on one of the spikes he chopped down. Fresh cuts marred her bare arms. _Pathetic._

"Are you a Keyblade Master or not?" Vanitas spat. "I thought you were better than this."

"I'm not," she mumbled, tears streaming down her face. "I have darkness inside me…"

"So what?" He crouched in front of her. "I already told you, every creature on the face of the worlds has darkness in it. Even your beloved Master did. You're no special snowflake."

She shook her head. "What sick game are you playing now? This is what you wanted, isn't it? To watch me end up just like you?"

"As if you're anything like me." He almost laughed. Instead he sat down next to her with his back to the charcoal grey ledge. "You don't even have a fraction of the darkness Ventus _started _with, before I was taken out."

"But-"

"Look, you're in the Realm of Darkness. No being of light has ever survived here, ever. So get over yourself."

Vanitas stood up and stuck out a hand in her general direction. She stared at it, but she didn't more. Her eyes were still dull, grey, empty, like the stone walls surrounding them. He decided he didn't like them like that.

"Why should I come with you?" She barely said.

He sighed heavily. "We've been over this before. If you want to keep rotting down here, fine, but I'm getting out."

"...I don't trust you," she admitted.

"I don't expect you to." He shrugged, still offering his hand. "So are you coming or not? My arm's getting tired."

She took too long with her decision, not being considerate towards his tired arm. "…I'm coming." Finally she tried to stand up (though she wouldn't accept his hand, stubborn girl), but her legs gave out and she fell to her knees.

He rolled his eyes. "We'll just camp here. I don't want to carry you out."

"I'll be fine…"

"No, you'll fall over on one of those spikes and impale yourself." Vanitas summoned a few Floods and bashed them with his keyblade until HP orbs came out.

"Wait- _you _were the one-?"

"Shut up and get better." He tossed a glowing green orb to her and stalked off.

"Where are you going?" Aqua asked weakly.

Where _was_ he going? He wasn't really sure, but he didn't feel like sitting, not right now. If he sat down he might think about things. Like the fact that he might actually want her to get better.

"I saw your sleeve back there." At least he thought he did; he hadn't really been paying attention after he found her.

"Don't bother," she replied. "I can't fix it."

He kept walking anyway. The white tube of cloth hung in tatters from the point of a smaller jagged spire a few yards from their makeshift camp. She was right; there was no point in saving it. But for some reason he grabbed the shredded cloth anyway.

What he came back, Aqua had summoned a small orb of Fira and sat shivering behind it.

"You need some better clothes," Vanitas said, sitting on the other side of her Fira and still holding her sleeve. "Not that you had much to begin with."

She glared at him, but she kept her temper in check this time. "I live in a castle full of boys. The only clothes I had belonged to Masters that had lived there decades ago, and what I made myself."

"Which was that?" Vanitas nodded at her.

"All that's left are the borrowed parts." She shivered. "But I can't make any new clothes without the proper materials."

He looked her over. He'd already seen that her skirt-thing was missing, and so were both of her sleeves, of course. One of her pink chest-straps had snapped too. What he hadn't noticed before was that her shoes were also missing (how had she lost metal boots? Throwing them at the Heartless?), and her long black socks were crisscrossed with scars. Her shirt was thick enough to weather cuts and scratches, but it had been singed on the left side. Vanitas was slightly disappointed that she'd never been this damaged by any of her fights with him.

"Those won't last another Heartless attack," he said truthfully.

"They'll have to," Aqua replied, still shivering as the Fira cast flickering orange highlights and shadows across her face. "This is all I have."

"Maybe not," he thought out loud. "My suit was created from the darkness. I might be able to do the same for you."

"No!" She objected immediately. "I don't want anything else to do with darkness."

Vanitas shrugged. "Fine, but if your clothes fall off while we're fighting, it's your problem."

He wondered if it was just the tint of his mask combined with the glow of the fire, or if it was actually possible for her to blush blood red. "My clothes aren't going to fall off."

"Stop acting like an idiot. It's not like a dark suit will hurt you, anyway. If anything it will protect you from the darkness."

"I don't believe you," Aqua huffed, "but I guess I don't have much of a choice."

"You still have a choice." He shrugged again. "You can choose to go naked. I don't really care."

She glared with more hate than he expected. "You're disgusting."

"What?" He was honestly confused; her eyes didn't look that angry even when he insulted Terra and Eraqus. "Am I supposed to care if you wear clothes or not?"

Now it was her turn to be confused. "No. Wait, yes – ugh." She dropped her head into her hands, which had retained their fingerless gloves. "People have to wear clothes. End of discussion."

"Okay, whatever." He still didn't see what the big deal was. He wore more clothes than her on a regular basis anyway, and it was only for the sake of protection (and because Master Xehanort had forbidden him from getting rid of them). But that didn't sound like what she was worried about. "So do you want a dark suit or not?"

"Fine," she grudgingly agreed. He suspected it was just to make him shut up.

"Move your arms." He pointed to where her arms were wrapped tightly around herself, trying to keep warm.

"Why?" She asked suspiciously.

"Shut up and do it. I'm running out of patience."

She finally obeyed, and he placed a hand at the base of her neck, where her collarbones would meet if they weren't covered by her shirt. She flinched away.

"Don't touch me!"

He rolled his eyes. "How else do you expect me to make your suit? Just be glad I'm letting you keep your shirt on; this would probably be easier without it." He couldn't be sure since he'd never actually done it before, but it was another variable he had to deal with.

She gritted her teeth. "I hope you know I still hate you."

"I'd be offended if you didn't, Aqua."

He closed his eyes and focused on his inner darkness, sort of like when he would summon a dark corridor, only he coaxed it into forming thin navy-blue tendrils. To make those tendrils grow, he had to reach out to her darkness, tearing a bloodcurdling scream from her lips.

"Suck it up, you're fine," Vanitas told her, his focus wavering. The dark tendrils paused until he tugged at her darkness again.

"You said it wouldn't hurt!" She screamed.

"I said the suit won't hurt. I never said making it wouldn't."

She screamed again, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through it, making the organic tendrils split and wrap around her neck and arms. Next he made them cover her back and chest, forming a pattern similar to the one on his own, before moving on to her waist and legs. A ragged skirt, longer than his own, flowered of its own accord. Her cries had faded to whimpers by the time he ended with pointed boots.

Aqua gasped for breath. "You- you-"

"Yes, I'm a monster," he drawled, remembering the previous time she'd called him that, back in Neverland. In the Realm of Light. It already felt like forever since he had seen a real sky. "You can call me that when that suit ends up saving your life."

"What life…?" She slid down the stone wall until she was almost lying down. "I'm already dead…"

Vanitas stared at her sad grey eyes before they closed in fitful sleep. _No appreciation. No "thanks, Vanitas, for trying to stop me from getting myself killed." I shouldn't have bothered._

"You're not dead, Aqua. Not until I say so."

**A/N: The end of this kind of bothers me… *wince* Vanitas is still sadistic, and he also doesn't understand things that come naturally to normal people, like privacy and modesty. So he really wasn't purposely being gross at all… *sweatdrop***


	4. Shining Star

Vanitas tried to sleep, but it was difficult with that hovering orb of Fira flickering to the beat of Aqua's dreams. Or nightmares, more likely. Panting gasps escaped her lips at irregular intervals, and she curled up on her side with her knees tucked to her chest. The blue and pink skirt-thing flared out over her legs and the ground like a ragged blanket.

He didn't realize he was staring until she shifted uncomfortably and ended up facing him. He quickly shoved his helmet over his head, but her eyes were still closed. Might as well leave it on, though, in case she did wake up.

Her arm relaxed from hugging her knees, brushing against something Vanitas hadn't noticed hanging from the belt holding up her skirt. Instantly her fingers curled around it, and the Fira calmed as her now-smiling lips parted in a whisper.

"Terra… Ven…"

The hairs on the back of Vanitas's neck stood up when he heard the names. Maybe he didn't want her broken completely, but she shouldn't be whole enough to care about those idiots. What was that thing she was holding?

He tried to get a closer look, but her hand was clutched too tightly around it. But he didn't have to see it to smell the fresh scent billowing off it, or to notice the soft white glow through her fingers.

Vanitas quickly glanced up at the cliff ledges surrounding them and cursed.

"Get up." He shook Aqua as calmly as he could, considering there were hundreds of glowing yellow eyes staring down at them, slowly advancing as if they were confused. Of course, he wasn't worried for himself, but if the Heartless tried to take the one semi-interesting thing in the Realm of Darkness away from him, they'd better be ready to lose their worthless non-existences.

"Shh," she whispered, eyes still closed. "It's not morning yet, Ven…"

"I am not _Ven," _Vanitas growled, kicking the blue-haired girl in the side. She was lucky he pulled the kick slightly at the last minute – he didn't care if she was dreaming or not; _no one _called him Ven.

That finally woke her up, and the light from whatever she was holding went out. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the Heartless from jumping, crawling, and/or flying down the cliffs to find out where the light had gone. Vanitas could still smell the sweet scent on her skin.

"Forget this." He summoned a Bruiser to scoop up the confused Aqua before any Heartless could attack her. His Bruiser kept itching to crush her, too, and Vanitas's attention was split between destroying Heartless and keeping the Unversed in check.

"She's _mine," _he hissed, slicing through a Darkball that tried to chomp her.

After several minutes of slashing and bashing, the remaining Heartless finally got the hint and slunk back to whatever holes they had come from.

"Idiots," Vanitas spat, dispelling his keyblade.

"Rah!" He finally heard Aqua shout, stabbing her own blade through the Bruiser's chest and falling to the ground when its negativity was absorbed back into Vanitas. "Nnghh…"

"I'm sure you put so much thought into that." He rolled his eyes. "You slept long enough. We're leaving."

"Why did those Heartless attack?" Aqua demanded, even though she was currently crumped on the ground, in no position to demand anything of anyone. "You said this suit would protect me."

Vanitas cocked his head, finally getting a good look at the object hanging from Aqua's hip. It was a metal-rimmed, stained glass star, simple but elegant in design, with a silver Keyblade Wielder symbol holding it together in the middle. Its lighter blue color clashed with the darker shade of her new suit. Aqua's eyes narrowed, but before she could say anything, Vanitas told her, "That thing attracted them. It has too much light."

"Huh…? Oh." Her fingers held the star-shaped charm tenderly. Vanitas's skin crawled. "The spell I put on it…"

"Get rid of it," Vanitas ordered.

"What?" Aqua balked. "There's no way I would do that!"

"It's attracting Heartless. You'll get us killed."

"It saved me from them once," She argued. "That's more than this suit has done."

Vanitas growled at having his suit insulted. "My suit is worth way more than some stupid charm!"

Aqua's face twisted furiously. "I made that '_stupid charm' _myself, and it holds a bond that can't be broken! A bond between me and my friends!"

Vanitas smirked under his mask. "And where are those friends now?"

He knew he'd struck a nerve when she grimaced and froze up, hand over her chest, where a dark mist wafted off of her suit. Her anger and the darkness must be woven together more tightly than he thought. It probably didn't help that she'd never had so much of either to restrain before. "They're… safe…"

Maybe he didn't want her consumed by darkness, but driving a spike through the heart of her friendships brought him a sick glee. He laughed in a way that could only be described as demented. "You call being in an eternal coma 'safe'? Or wandering the worlds with Xehanort hiding in your heart, is that safe? Face it, Aqua, all you did was get yourself stuck down here where you can't help either of them. But maybe you're better off this way. At least they can't take anything else from you."

She was breathing heavily, clutching her star-shaped charm in one hand, the other still trying to hold in the darkness leaking out of her chest. "They never took anything from me… I always gave from the light in my heart. Something you wouldn't understand."

"And why would I want to?" Vanitas retorted. Her darkness was fading again, her voice steadying.

"So you could be loved," she said with surprising calm. Vanitas blinked, but to her his face would appear as unreadable as ever. Thank the Void for his mask.

"Aqua, you don't know anything about darkness."

"I know more about darkness than you do about light."

"I know plenty about light," he argued. She raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"Then tell me, what does it feel like when light touches your heart?"

What light felt like in his heart? There was only one time he had felt that – as he united with Ventus. But that one time was burned vividly into his memory.

"It stabs like a hundred needles of fire embedding themselves in your heart," Vanitas began in a slow cadence, voice low. "It burns like your whole existence is being consumed, like you're nothing, like you're less than nothing…" _And it was the best moment of my sick life. _Not that he would ever admit that to Aqua.

The light had torn him apart, put him back together again, and – once Ventus was gone – left him just as empty as before. Light never stayed. And it could never be trusted.

Vanitas turned away from Aqua before she could argue any more.

"I plan on actually getting somewhere today. Try to keep up."

**A/N: Not much going on in this chapter, but I enjoyed clarifying some character development. It's going to take a long time for either of them to get past their stubbornness. Though they're so different, I find it interesting that Aqua and Vanitas both share that and their pride as a couple of their main weaknesses.**


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